Episode description
This episode carries content warnings for blood, civilian harm and death, parental death, conscription, torture and kidnapping.
Under the wings of the Kestrel White, war washes ashore the Isle of the Broken Key. Soon after the crew of the Blue Channel released Kenneth Marian Colver, Bilateral Viceroy to Palisade and convert of the Usher of Truth, he ordered his flagship to return and lay waste to the home of the Dim Liturgy and Devotees. Now, the Cause fights not only for ideals but for survival. A rifle takes aim. A hammer lifts into the air. A cannonade echoes for miles. The monastery burns. and the blaze casts a shadow too long for a single night’s contemplation.
This week on PALISADE: Upon Our Grace Pt. 4
I'm out / There's nothing here to care about / What's that sound? / What's that song about? / It’s nothin’ worth me sayin’ aloud
Dossier
Organizations
Violet Cove: The Dim Liturgy claim to have seen the Divine Devotion's arrival coming in their sacred text: A battered and corrupted backup of Crystal Palace's final predictions for the future. Now the two cults work together to oust the Bilats... and perhaps to do more intriguing things, as well. The Devotees: A church from the Twilight Mirage that is committed to the worship of the divine Devotion, which they sometimes refer to as Fervor. Common practices include the regular checking of one’s pulse and multi-day group picnic outings. People
Connadine (he/him): Commander of the BIS on Palisade. An expert in psychological operations and folklore. As a composer, his opus is the Adagio, a plan to get everyone on Palisade operating in ways not only predictable, but scripted. As a conductor, his orchestra now turns towards the second movement. Saint Decario Dicario (he/him): Devoted Devotee warmonger and one-time lover of the Twilight Mirage rockstar Teleos Triton Tanager. Sea Crepuscule (he/him): Master of the Concave Wing of the Dim Liturgy’s primary monastery, where he leads the search for specific details and predictions from the Glass Archive’s remnants. Additionally, the most highly placed member of the Paint Shop (and thus, most important shield for the BIS spies) inside of Dim Liturgy. Marlon Styx a.k.a. Em (he/him): Undercover BIS agent assigned to infiltrate Violet Cove. Has become enamored with the Dim Liturgy’s holy text. Tea Time (she/her): Assistant to the assistant of Dicario St. Dicario. BIS Spy. Queue 1224 (he/him): A non-Columnar synthetic monk who helps with preparing parts of the Thing Itself for movement to Convex or Concave. BIS Spy. Zedd Z. Izzard (he/him): Lovable dirtbag chef. Works in main hall's mess hall. Knows everyone’s favorite drink and most people's favorite meal. Satisfactory pilot. BIS Spy. Bea Earlyday (she/her): Young Chariot pilot assigned to the defense of the Isle of the Broken Key. Under Griesel Sunset's command. BIS Spy. Kay (they/them): Cashier of the monastery treasury. BIS Spy. Tenn Alpenglow (he/him): Bodyguard of Kenneth Marian Colver and Knight of the Fabreal Duchy. Resents his assignation to guard the cowardly Viceroy, but takes seriously his sworn oath to serve under the Duchy's new masters. Kenneth Marian Colver (he/him): Former member of the Curtain, now Kesh’s Viceroy on the world. Reports up to the Stargrave. Bread concerns have been replaced with violence concerns. Kensley Marlowe Colver (she/her): Sister of Kenneth Marian Colver, pilot of a Gorget, award winning hunter of megafauna, and craven champion of cruelty. Elle Evensong (she/they) - Elle arrived to Palisade along with the first wave of Devotees, making a name for herself as a cunning combatant and clever commander. She became a poster child for Twilight Mirage's support of Palisade (and, for members of the Dim Liturgy, a prophesied bridge between the past and the future). But as the war began to heat up, she seemed to vanish into the background. Pilot of the Cataphract. Midnite Matinee (she/her): Leporine scout and member of the Blue Channel. She and her trusty Pack-model light AutoHollow Popcorn (she/her) used to run a repo company, but now are tentatively committed to the Cause and Millennium Break. Routine Rennari (he/him): Half-Apostolsian, scion of a minor Kesh noble house, and the Blue Channel's heavy. Hunting "Hunt" Tomorrow (he/him): Concretist specialist in communications and technology, assigned to the Blue Channel during its integration into the Cause. Saffron Septet (she/her): A doctor from the Twilight Mirage who lives as a digital consciousness, spread across a number of bodily forms including a heavy Torch Unit, a small motorcycle, and a unique and specially-crafted surgeon body. Places
Isle of the Broken Key: Home of the Dim Liturgy since its obscure creation thousands of years ago. Now serves as base for the entire Violet Cove unit of the Cause, including the Devotees and (most recently) additional support teams from the Twilight Mirage. Chimera's Lantern: The second moon of Palisade, shaped oddly like a wasp’s nest or paper lantern. New arrivals to the world find its occasional glow unnatural and frightening. Objects
The Kestral White: Flagship of Palisade's Viceroy, Kenneth Marrian Colver. Hovers like a hawk on a thermal updraft, searching for its prey. Gambeson: The Gambeson is only about 10 meters tall (less than half an Altar), but it is nevertheless a terrifying scourge of the battlefield. Modeled after an iron maiden, except with it's tortorous doors attached to its back serving as wings. Its head features a metalworked face, twisted into extreme and offputting smile. Its skeletal frame serves not only as body, but cage: pilots are criminal conscripts forced to pay off their “debt” to Kesh by the Divine Plight, earning their freedom through combat achievements. Gorget: When visible, the Gorget is a bright and fashionable machine, its long features clad in golden armor, yet hidden playfully covered by a chic red hunting cape. When walking, it’s posture is buoyed by a fashionable walking cane. But at a whim, the Altar’s pilot may extend the length of the cape, surrounding the entire body with a layer of magical camouflage, cloaking it from both sensors and plain sight. And at that moment, its cane twists and folds, revealing itself to be a perfectly honed rifle. Cataphract: When the engineers loyal to Devotion studied the data from the Chariot Mk. 1 units, they saw they had a problem: maximum results required a lethal amount of blood from the pilots. One solution to this problem would become the Charoit Mk. 2, which offered more efficient energy exchange per ounce of ichor taken. The Cataphract, which draws on the blood of others to perform unimaginable feats, is the other. Divines
Asepsis (it/its): The final living remnants of a Divine who pursues its particular vision of purity at the cost of everything else. Kept, studied, and utilized by Captain Kalvin Brnine. The Reflecting Pool, f.k.a the Divine Past, f.k.a. Crystal Palace (it/its): In the era before the founding of the Divine Principality, Crystal Palace served as the supreme oracle engine of the Rapid Evening and the Principality of Kesh. At the end of that era, it lost its ability to predict the future, but continued as a vast archive of the past, and became canonized as the Divine Past (which now serves as the Reflecting Pool, center of the Witch in Glass’ kingdom). The final record of its predictions into the future are stored on Palisade, under protection (and study) of the Dim Liturgy and Violet Cove.
Contents
Plot
Battle
The Broken Key settlement continues to flood. Zedd Z. Izzard reappears piloting a Vambrace and advances on Thisbe.
To help Cori against Bea Earlyday, Brnine has Asepsis temporarily power the Chariot Mk. 2 in Devotion's stead. Cori smashes Bea to death with her hammer. Unfortunately, she strikes carelessly, and on the backswing she skewers her father, killing him.
As this happens, Elle Evensong arrives in the Cataphract and takes out Tenn Alpenglow's Plackart. Asepsis identifies Elle as a BIS spy. The "goo-esque" aura of the Cataphract splits off into a second mech-like shape that stays with Cori and physically protects her.
Phrygian kills Kensley Marlowe Colver. From the Kestral White, Kenneth Marian Colver signals for retreat, and combatants begin to flee. Figure radios Brnine: "Are you really gonna let them get away after what they did?" The Blue Channel snipes the Kestral White, and the Kestral White returns fire. Thisbe arrests Zedd, but elsewhere, Tea Time escapes.
Elle tries to comfort Cori and reassure her that they'll get her out safe. Cori blames Griesel's death on Elle, then shuts off her comms. Elle is officially declared Cori's rival.
Phrygian cloaks and, with Figure distracting the ship, one-shots the Kestral White, which crashes into the sea below. Asepsis locates Queue 1224 in the Glass Archive, and Midnite captures him.
Phrygian tries to convince the remaining Gambeson pilot, Free Fidelity, to stop fighting. It doesn't work, and Phrygian takes the Burden "War-Weary".
Aftermath
Once it's safe, Cori climbs out of her mech and tries to perform first aid on her father, but it's quickly clear that he is gone. She sits with him until Saint Decario Dicario shows up. He tries to tell Cori about how proud Griesel was of her until she excuses herself. Brnine picks Cori up in their hover car and brings her back to the ship. When she gets in the car, Cori starts crying for the first time.
People swarm Elle, celebrating her as a hero for taking out Tenn and keeping Cori safe. As a courtesy, Thisbe asks them if they would let the Blue Channel detain them rather than arresting them outright. Elle agrees on the condition that they are not put in restraints in public view. Thisbe leads them into the ship, where they seem strangely at ease.
As a consequence of the Blue Channel failing to go to Baseline, a revolution has been attempted in Baseline and badly failed. Many are dead, including Ce Gull and Broadleaf. The Frontier Syndicate's plans for Baseline will continue apace.
Cast
- Austin Walker (GM)
- Ali Acampora (Kalvin Brnine)
- Andrew Lee Swan (The Figure in Bismuth)
- Janine Hawkins (Thisbe)
- Sylvia Bullet (Coriolis Sunset)
- Keith J. Carberry (Phrygian)